Day 66, San Blas, Panama

So what happens next is probably one of the most amazing experiences i have had in my life. Throughout our stay in panama we kept hearing other travelers talking about san blas, and these amazing islands on the carribean coast. So what it is, is another archipegelo of approximately 365 islands of the carribean coast of panama. All of the islands are owed by the kuna, which is a tribe that lives on some of the islands. They have their own goverment, and their own laws, they are self sustaining. If you are not of kuna origen you cannot buy an island. So the islands stay within the kuna people. We decided we wanted to visit these islands. It took us awhile to figure out how, you could fly there or you coudl drive there. We end up talking to others at our hostel and we set up a car ride and boat ride that would take us to an island where we would stay with a kuna family. The young man who meets us the next morning at 5am is named Aaron, and his younger brother Enrique. We find out that Aarons family owns a few islands and we are going to go stay on his island. We are picked up by a 4x4 jeep that somehow manages to squeeze 7 of us including the driver into an intense roller coaster gravel road ride that lasts 5 hours to the carribean coast. We arrive at a river where Aarons famlily boat picks us up, the boat is literally a 15ft long canoe with a motor. We take a 30 minute boat ride and all you see around you is the beautiful ocean and small tiny islands. And i mean small like 50 ft wide, all covered in sand and a single palm tree growing in the centre. Aarons island has a population of 200 and its full to the edges of the island with huts. We arrive at his island and we are escorted to our living area which was a thatched hut made of bamboo and palm leaves that held 4 hammocks, thats right everyone we were going to be living in hammocks over a sand floor. The island doesnt have a school, the children have to take a boat to an island that contains a primary school or another island that has a highschool. Each island has a meeting centre where they have meeting every evening, most of the time woman arent allowed and its solely for men and the tribe leader. On occasion woman are invited but they have to sit on the sides of the hut while the men sit in the centre. The kuna believe in the medicine man and the holy spirits and idols. While we were there a nearby hut was filled with the voice of a man that sounded like a tibetan throat singer, we learned that he was a medicine man who was praying over someone that is sick and he would stay there throughout the night singing for the sick. They also have no violence on the islands because kuna believe in evil spirits and if they commit a crime they will be punished by their god. THe kuna also inter marry between islands and on occasion a kuna will marry someone from the mainland. Most of the island has no electricity and no one has running water. Where we were staying we had no electricity, it was dark by 6pm all the only light you had were candles and the light of the moon. Our bathroom was the most memorable, a bamboo little hut sitting over the ocean, you walk up a plank to get to it, you have to make noise so you dont walk in on someone becasue there is no door. The toilet is just a hole through the bottom of the shack into the water below, so you are doing yoru business 8ft above water and it just falls to into the ocean. The shower was right beside the toilet but it had no water. We had to bring a bucket of water from a reseviour (how do you spell that) and me and laura would have to take turns throwing water at eachother. Lets just say it was such a difficult process we boycotted having anymore showers.
Our meals were included in our accomodations, the meals were very simple, always rice, and boiled potato. Sometimes a whole fish including the head was delivered onto your plate, or they were all about fried chicken which tasted similar to shake and bake. On the side they would have tomatos and sliced cucumber and cabbage. For dessert it was pineapple or watermelon. Very simple and healthy. We called it diet camp.
The kuna themselves are very quiet people. The woman are all traditionally dressed in these blouses the have a mola on the front and back and these beautiful skirts, the most interesting thing about them are their nose rings, which look like a ball inside each nostril, their short cropped hair cuts and they kuna jewellery which is made of a single strand of beads in certain colour patterns wrapped around their lower legs and halfway up their arms.
The day we arrived aaron took us by boat to his grandfathers island, it was a 45 minute boat ride. His grandfathers island is perhaps the most beautiful place i have ever been on earth. The water was ice blue the sand was powdery soft and the sea shells where as big as my head. There we spent the afternoon relaxing and enjoyed smoked fish for lunch. A nearby island has set up a tourist area and charges 200 per person/night. And we were paying 25 dollars a night to stay with a family and get 3 meals a day.
The next day it was overcast, we were supposed to visit iguana island but instead we passed out in our hammock for 5 hours. Aaron invited us to watch the children of the island practice their traditional dance and he said if we paid a little money the kids would dress in traditional clothes. So of course we agreed, we headed to the centre of the island to this courtyard, all the parents were gathering to watch their kids perform. The kids were excited becasue they had a paying gringo audience.

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